I like fish... fresh, tinned, smoked, steamed, grilled, baked en papillote, in a taco... you get the idea. Canadians have been told for sometime now to eat fish as a source of essential fatty acid omega 3 for better heart health, cancer prevention and autoimmune diseases. Today the CBC shared that a Canadian Medical Association Journal is publishing a report today asking whether telling the public to eat more fish is sustainable. Why the sudden turnaround?
1- Overfishing has endangered and killed entire species causing an increase in world trade (so poor countries export to rich ones), in some cases leaving only fish heads and bones for East Africans to eat
2- Fish farms contaminate wild fish with parasites and it takes up to 5kg of small feeder fish to grow only 1kg of farmed fish (which may contain more carcinogenic PCBs than wild fish)
3- Health benefits of eating fish are dubious since previous research may not have done a thorough job of controlling for lifestyle factors, i.e., people who eat lots of fish may have other healthy habits contributing to their good health status
Luckily Canadians can look to Sea Choice's "Canada's Seafood Guide". It's a wallet sized guide of sustainable seafood choices you can refer to in the grocery store or your favourite restaurant.
How can we maintain heart health then? Go for a walk. Eat some flax. Laugh.
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